On the Methods of Science on Earth and on Dunatopia

Abstract

This chapter brings into focus and deepens our treatment of what we consider, from a scientific point of view, the main problem afflicting the present social world: the question of method. We underline the erroneousness of the assertion as to the uniqueness of scientific method and clarify the reasons why it is not so, namely, the completely different constitutive character of social from natural reality, the first being a human construct, the second a predetermined and relatively steady order with which men interact. Social reality is, in one sense, at the mercy of the constructive and creative behavior of humans, and this points to the need for an organizational view in both the management and the study of such a reality. Man is the author of social changes and hence can penetrate the reasons for them; yet a merely observational method cannot but fail in this regard. We return but now deepen the exposition in Chap. 2 of the most appropriate methodological approach to social studies and provide an extended discussion of the usefulness of this method in clarifying the frequent methodological misunderstandings that afflict the social sciences today. Clarifications of the confusions associated with both spontaneity and revolutionary attitudes are provided, together with some interpretation of social reality and history.

Keywords

Method of social sciences Social reality versus Natural reality Human creativeness Organizational view as appropriate to social reality Against spontaneity and revolutionary attitudes